The scorching fiyo on the bayou that started last night after a tugboat slammed into a pipeline near Lafitte continues to burn Wednesday afternoon. Officials are apparently set to let the Bayou Perot blaze run its course as they begin operations to contain and clean up oil that was spilled in the area, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. 

A fiery collision between a tugboat and a pipeline near the Jefferson Parish town of Jean Lafitte injured the boat's captain, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The 47-ft. tug Shannon E. Settoon was pushing a 154-ft. barge in Bayou Perrot about 6 p.m. Tuesday when it collided with a pipeline. The tug and barge burst into flames, but crew members were able to escape.

As the trial to mete out punishement for the 2010 oil disaster plays out on Poydras, the Coast Guard is dealing with another incident out in the Gulf Wednesday. On Tuesday night, a 42-foot crewboat slammed into an inactive wellhead, causing oil, water and natural gas to leak from the structure.

The body of one of two workers reported missing after Friday's fire at a Gulf of Mexico oil platform was recovered over the weekend, according to the platform's owners. After finding the body Saturday,  the Coast Guard called off their search. However, Black Elk Energy issued a statement Sunday saying they would continue looking for the other missing worker.

Updated 7:30 p.m.

Not even 24 hours after BP admitted guilt for the Big Oozy, another oil facility explosion and fire was reported in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Plaquemines Parish officials, the explosions was reported at a shallow water platform owned by Black Elk Energy about 25 miles off Grand Isle at 9:15 a.m., and the Coast Guard dispatched crews to put out the fire. Two people are missing, according to the Coast Guard. It was previously reported that 

BP thinks the latest Gulf oil is coming from a leaky dome. According to a statement released Thursday afternoon, the sheen discovered above the Deepwater Horizon on Sept. 16 is seeping small globules of oil out of a containment dome that was used in one of the company's many ineffective attempts to cap the Macondo well. The structure is not currently in use, BP said.

It's like 2010 all over again at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, as robots, BP, Transocean and the Coast Guard are getting ready for a reunion in the Gulf. The two companies are getting set to use the underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and satellite technology to get a bead on the size and source of the oil sheen that's hovering above the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

by Chase Lowenstein

Once again, the U.S. Coast Guard is scrambling to make sense of recent releases of oil in the Gulf. The source of the latest sheen, which appeared near the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, remains a mystery. But the USCG is investigating the oil to attempt to determine the cause.

by Chase Lowenstein

On Thursday Sept. 20, an airplane manned by two Texans crashed into the Gulf of Mexico 28 miles east of South Pass. Theodore Wright and Raymond Fosdick of Baytown Texas were rescued by U.S. Coast guard. Wright survived without serious injury,  while Fosdick was taken to Ochsner Medical Center - West Bank Campus.

by Chase Lowenstein

It appears we havent' heard the last about post-Isaac pollution. New information released by a pair of environmental groups today is showing that the Stolthaven New Orleans petroleum and chemical storage and transfer terminal in the badly-flooded Plaquemines Parish community of Braithwaite has leaked more than 191,000 gallons of toxic chemicals. Just one day after the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality publicly released a statement that the facility had no contamination, the company filed a report with the U.S. Coast Guard that showed quite the opposite, accoridng to the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and the Gulf Restoration Network.